Stosunek ziemiaństwa do okupanta niemieckiego w dystrykcie radomskim 1939-1945

Abstract

Having captured the territory of Poland and introduced their own administration, the Germans commenced to implement specific economic plans. The chief objective for the occupant on the territory of the General Gouvernement was to direct its economy in such a way that it would become the food supply basis for the Third Reich. The dominant role in assuring the security of provisions for Germany was to be played by the agricultural production at the workshops of large landowners. Therefore the mutual relationships between the landed gentry and the occupant were mainly determined by the economic factor. Moreover, one can state that it was actually the economic platform, which was the most important domain of the German influence on the landed gentry. Mainly in the first years of the occupation, the Germans conducted preferential policy in relation to farming, hoping to achieve a radical growth of agricultural production, which they needed so much. The landowners referred to those measures pragmatically, and took advantage of the opportunity to strengthen the economic potential of their estates. Their work in the agricultural apparatus was treated as an opportunity to help representatives of their own community, as well as other social groups. At the same time, however, the occupant conducted a widespread operation of expropriation of estates and their physical liquidation. The consequence of that policy was that ca. 1/3 of the farms in the Radom district were taken over by the Germans. The escalation of the frequently excessive exploitation of the farms, which began together with the growing failures at the eastern front, met with resistance of the landowners. The methods of economic struggle applied most often by the landowners against the enemy included falsification of the statistics at their estates, boycott of the compulsory supplies, and participation in the illegal market The large help of the landowners to the armed underground can also be considered struggle on the economic platfoim. The supplies given to the guerrillas diminished the economic potential of the Third Reich, on the one hand, while on the other, supported the expansion of the armed conspiracy which, more or less effectively fought against the anti-Polish policy of the Nazi occupation. The political significance of the landed gentry was considered slightly lower by the Germans, though they made attempts at winning some representatives of the landowners to political co-operation. Majority of the landowners resisted those proposals, and only a few sympathised with the occupant. In sporadic cases, it resulted in signing the volkslist, which often served as a cover for the work for freedom. It was only in 1944, in the context of organising the anti-Bolshevik front by the invaders, that landed gentry was recognised by the Germans as a politically significant social group. The political collaboration against Bolshevism, which was proposed by the enemy, failed due to the national causes. Even the innate aversion of the landed gentry towards communism, cleverly nourished by the German propaganda, did not bring the expected results in confrontation with the patriotism and political maturity of the gentry.